Taiwan Stock Market Poised To End Losing Streak

(RTTNews) - The Taiwan stock market has moved lower in four straight sessions, stumbling more than 565 points or 2.7 percent along the way. The Taiwan Stock Exchange now rests just above the 22,780-point plateau although it may stop the bleeding on Monday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is positive on solid earnings news and renewed optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were up and the Asian bourses are expected to follow suit.

The TSE finished modestly lower on Friday following losses from the financial shares, technology stocks and plastics companies.

For the day, the index dipped 40.35 points or 0.18 percent to finish at 22,780.08 after trading between 22,231.94 and 22,828.98.

Among the actives, Mega Financial and Hon Hai Precision both stumbled 1.65 percent, while First Financial shed 0.55 percent, Fubon Financial lost 0.44 percent, E Sun Financial tanked 2.01 percent, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company fell 0.49 percent, United Microelectronics Corporation slumped 3.22 percent, Largan Precision rose 0.22 percent, Catcher Technology tumbled 1.91 percent, Delta Electronics plunged 3.34 percent, Novatek Microelectronics slid 0.40 percent, Formosa Plastics sank 0.42 percent, Asia Cement dropped 0.75 percent and Cathay Financial, CTBC Financial, MediaTek and Nan Ya Plastics were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street is upbeat as the major averages opened higher on Friday and remained in the green throughout the trading day.

The Dow jumped 288.73 points or 0.69 percent to finish at 42,052.19, while the NASDAQ added 144.77 points of 0.80 percent to end at 18,239.92 and the S&P 500 rose 23.35 points or 0.41 percent to close at 5,728.80.

For the week, the Dow eased 0.2 percent, the S&P slumped 1.4 percent and the NASDAQ stumbled 1.5 percent.

The strength on Wall Street reflected a positive reaction to upbeat earnings news from big-name companies like Intel (INTC) and Amazon (AMZN).

Traders also digested the Labor Department's closely watched jobs report, which showed weaker than expected job growth in October. The data raised some concerns about the strength of the economy, but the report also led to renewed optimism about the outlook for interest rates.

Oil futures settled modestly higher on Friday amid concerns about tensions in the Middle East after a report said Iran is planning further attacks on Israel. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for December ended higher by $0.23 or 0.33 percent at $69.49 a barrel.